A Born Educator
For many people, good ideas seem to stay just that: ideas. While they’re fun to daydream about, life often gets in the way, and the good idea doesn’t come to fruition for one reason or another.
For Jessie Hoffman, founder of the Barrington School, ideas never seem to just go away.
Hoffman was born in Westerville, but her family moved to Dublin when she was 5 years old. She attended the Columbus School for Girls while her brothers, Josh and Joel Roby, attended Dublin City Schools.
The Roby family business was Storytime Learning Center, now Jelly Bean Junction, providing day care and early education around central Ohio. Hoffman imagined she’d follow in her parents’ footsteps, but her grandmother had some words of wisdom.
“My grandma talked me into going into education. She said, ‘That’s something you’ll always be able to fall back on,’” Hoffman says.
Hoffman grew up working in all aspects of her parents’ business. Her titles included cook, director and teacher; whatever her parents, Jeff and Bonnie Roby, needed, Hoffman was up to the task. She found middle ground at Ohio University by majoring in early childhood education with a specialization in business. After graduating, she came back to central Ohio to student and substitute teach until her parents convinced her to return to the family business. There, Hoffman learned accounting and any of the back-end tasks of Jelly Bean.
That’s why, when Hoffman told her mother that she and her husband, Phil, were planning to send their daughter to Columbus School for Girls, Hoffman’s mom was baffled.
“My mom said, ‘Why would you do that? We own our own centers,’” says Hoffman.
Hoffman’s parents suggested she come up with a plan for the ideal school to which to send her children, Tessa and Weston, and the family would work together to try and make it happen.
“We came up with price structure, how I was going to do it all, what I wanted – organic food, teachers – and then how I was going to be able to afford it all,” says Hoffman. “I approached my parents with it and they were like, ‘OK, we want two.’”
The Birth of Barrington
In 2014, Hoffman and her family opened the Barrington School’s Dublin and Powell locations, serving infants through school-aged children. Barrington has now grown to five locations. Hoffman’s original vision for the schools has stayed strong since Barrington’s opening, focusing on serving healthful meals and promoting a positive classroom experience.
Hoffman’s focus for the schools was on specific areas: empowering students to make a choice in the classroom, going above and beyond state requirements, and providing healthful meals to students throughout the day. Each Barrington classroom has one more teacher than the state requires, raising the student/teacher ratio from the state-required 1:6 to Barrington’s 1:4. And that’s not the only state requirement Barrington smashes.
Before opening Barrington, Hoffman made all of her own baby food from scratch, and wanted to expand this practice to Barrington. When she educated herself on state requirements for school food, though, she was shocked.
“(For breakfast), the state requires you to have a grain, dairy and a fruit,” says Hoffman. “Nothing in that sounds healthy to me.”
At Barrington, nationally known chefs cook all meals fresh – breakfast, lunch and a snack – with a menu that changes quarterly. For breakfast, students might enjoy a healthful smoothie or quiche, chicken and quinoa with fruit for lunch, and a quesadilla or chips and guacamole for snack time. These meal plans are a far cry from the trays of pizza and cookies that many adults remember from their own childhood. Hoffman says, to sustain children throughout the day and set them up for success, their diets need to be rich in protein – not carbs and fat.
“We like to keep it fresh, and (the students) will try things,” says Hoffman. “We have parents come in and they’ll be like, ‘How did you get my kids to eat this?’ Like, chickpea curry. It sounds so gross, but it’s amazing, and the kids devour it.”
No matter how much her job moves from teaching to administrative work, Hoffman finds every opportunity to interact with Barrington students, and is thrilled to be in the business of education.
“I like seeing all the kids in the morning and their smiling faces, and they come up and give you a hug. I think that’s the sweetest,” she says. “Every school I go to, I’ve got a couple kids that run up and grab my leg and say, ‘Hi, Miss Jessie! Hi! I miss you!’ Just seeing the happiness that goes on at the school, and how much the kids love their staff.”
Outside the Classroom
Though Hoffman’s entire family is involved in Barrington in one way or another, she makes sure to separate family time from work, and has even put certain expansion plans on hold to focus as much time as possible on her own children.
She; Phil; Tessa, 6; and Weston, 5; enjoy bike rides around Dublin, skiing, sledding and traveling. And though her expectations and goals for Barrington are at the highest level, her desires for her family are simple.
“I want my kids to grow and go to college and enjoy life,” says Hoffman. “I want to have a stress-free life.”
Hoffman has been approached about franchise opportunities for Barrington, but no matter to where the Barrington name expands, Hoffman and her family will always be found in Dublin. When Hoffman, now 37, once expressed a desire to move to California, her father called her bluff.
“My dad was like, ‘Go out there for two weeks. You tell me when you’re ready to come home,’” says Hoffman. “Two weeks later, I was like, ‘I’m never leaving Dublin.’”
With her parents, husband, children and business rooted in her hometown, Hoffman is glad to see Dublin developing without losing sight of its origin, and she’s excited to see where it goes from here.
“Dublin is perfect. You can ride your bike just about everywhere, and that’s what I love,” says Hoffman. “We can ride our bikes to El Vaquero, we can ride our bikes to the zoo. There’s no reason to leave. If you need anything fancy, it gets delivered.”
Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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